History of Thonia
The chronicles of the land of Thonia are vast beyond knowing. It’s an ancient land filled with bones of civilizations only remembered by those who devote a lifetime to such things. That is not what we’re here to discuss today. So sit down, pour yourself a drink and listen friend because it is time for your history lesson Thonia is a relatively small but well developed continent on the planet know as Aria. Thonia’s rich lands drew the farmers and miners of old into its heart of Thonia and they planted roots and created the first towns. These early settlers were met with initial distrust of the native dwarves that lived in the Durst Mountains. But after several generations of peace and trade, the dwarves came down from their mountain and asserted their claim on the land.With a desire to make peace the rulers of the 7 major kingdoms of Thonia signed a treaty with the dwarves. The War that Never Was Thonia’s growing wealth and prosperity began to draw the ire of the other continents of Aria, but once the rare mineral mithril was discovered in the the Durst mountains several kingdoms from across the sea declared all out war on the kingdoms surrounding the mountains and on the dwarves themselves. The long standing treaty forged by the Dwarves and settlers of Thonia required the kingdoms of the land to band together and aid the Dwarves if any such threat arose. And thats what they did. A land of peace was transformed into a machine of war. Each of the 7 great kingdoms of Thonia conscripted many of their subjects to fight. They were trained and taught the way of the blade and hammer. The dwarves engineered great machines of destruction the likes of which were never seen before. The kingdoms from the east arrived on the shores of Thonia and crossed the Urist Desert only to be met by a line of well armed and well trained soldiers that stretched the entire length of the mountain range standing shoulder to shoulder. This show of force broke the moral of the opposing army. They planned to walk over and take everything from the peace loving Thonians, but after seeing the army and weapons amassed against them they turn and fled back to where they came. Not a single arrow was fired nor blade bloodied. This of course was a great victory for Thonia, but once you train someone to kill, it is not easy to forget. With the 7 kingdoms now in possession of fully trained armies they began to squabble among themselves. And eventually this squabbling tuned to blows and large bloody battles broke out across Thonia killing many people. These escalated and grew more frequent. Some of the former soldiers who refused to be used as some kings pawn took to a life of banditry and theft. Thonia was standing on the verge of ruin. The Forming of the Guilds As the violence continued, one representative from each of the 7 kingdoms met in secret do discuss how to stop it and save Thonia from itself. They were unable to reach any sort of mutual solution, each of the representative wanted something that the others simply could not provide. So instead of making peace amongst the kingdoms themselves they wanted to bring order to the tools used for these fights, in particular the soldiers. One thing they all believed in was the right to self determination. This was the first spark of the idea for the guilds. After many months of deliberation they formalized the list of rules for the soldiers, explorers, crafters, and hunters who wanted to be free to do as they wish. These were the guild commandments. Each and every person who wished to join or start a guild must swear an oath to uphold these commandments on penalty of death. If they did that no other law of any kingdom could bind them. They were truly free men and women. Category:Setting Category:History